Familiar Lies (14 page)

“It’s for our protection,” Max said.

“Do you now how much trouble you’re already in?” Striped Shirt asked. “You’d better let me go right now before you make it worse on yourselves.”

Max and Liz looked at each other.

“Who are you, really?” Liz asked.

“Detective Jonathan Smith.”

Liz huffed. “Smith? Really? That’s the best you can come up with?”

“Check my ID and my badge. You’ll see.”

Liz looked at Max. He shrugged and nodded before reaching toward the man in the chair.

“Back left pocket,” the man said.

Max retrieved a wallet from the man’s pocket. Inside he found a badge and a picture ID for one Detective Jonathan Smith.

“Satisfied?” Smith asked.

“That could be a fake,” Liz said.

“It’s not. Call the precinct if you want proof. I’ll remind you though that assaulting a police officer and false imprisonment are both felonies.”

“You don’t know what we’ve seen tonight,” Max said. “If you did then you’d understand why we’re suspicious.”

“Why don’t you tell me about it then?”

“Why don’t you start talking first?” Liz said. “You can start by telling us how you found us and what you’re doing here with your gun drawn.”

“You two are the ones who need to start talking.”

“Humor us,” Max said. “It would help us get to a point where we could untie you.”

Smith’s eyes flashed between Liz and Max. He paused, considering. “All right then. I was at the club, watching you guys.”

“You saw what happened to Ruby?” Max asked.

“I did.”

“They got to her too.”

“Too?” Smith asked. “Who else are you talking about?”

Max stared at Smith for a few moments. He pictured the man out of the street clothes and in slacks and a button up shirt. He stared hard at the man before him and it soon became clear that Max remembered the face. “You were at Vanessa’s house.”

“Vanessa who?”

“Simmons.”

“What do you know about that?”

“I think he’s legit,” Max said to Liz. “I remember him from Vanessa’s house. He was there with Detective Cook.”

Liz stared at Smith. “I don’t remember. We were kinda far away.”

“Did they kill Vanessa too?” Max asked Smith.

“How about you tell me?”

“Just answer the question, Smith.”

“Someone did.”

Max sighed. “This is way out of control.”

Smith watch Max closely. “If you let me go now, we can talk. Whatever you’ve gotten yourself into, we’ll work to get you out of.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Max insisted.

“I didn’t say you did.” Smith watched Max again, reading his face. “Truth is, I’ve been trailing you for some time. I know you’ve gotten yourself caught up in something beyond your control.” Smith glanced at Liz. “I don’t know how you’re caught up in all this, but if you untie me I promise we’ll talk it through. I might even be able to forget about the fact that you thumped me with a fire extinguisher and tied me to a chair.”

Max looked at Liz. “What do you think?”

Liz eyed Smith with a suspicious stare. “Okay. But we keep the gun for now, just in case.”

Smith nodded. “Deal.”

Detective Jon Smith sat on the edge of the bed with a wet and bloody washcloth in his hand.

“I didn’t want to do that to you,” Max said. “We can’t just trust without question anymore.”

“I’ve been through worse,” Smith said. “But now I want you to tell me everything.”

Max began the story, telling the detective everything that had happened so far while Liz added in additional details. They told him of the basement, the DVD, Gabe, Ruby, Amanda, Caldwell, Josh and the cabin with the dead policeman inside. All the events, leading up to Ruby’s death in the parking lot of The Hustle. Max found it good to get it all off his chest.

“Ruby lied to you,” Smith said.

“About what?” Max asked.

“She and Gabe are together.”

“Together in what way?”

“Let’s say in love and in business. She helps him run those girls through his smut machine. That video operation they have going, it’s a turn and burn operation. Ruby helps to recruit them. She talks them off the ledge, gains their trust. The video business part of it is legit, Gabe didn’t lie about that, but I know there’s more to it.”

“Like what?” Liz asked.

“Drugs, for one thing.”

“I saw syringes down in that basement,” Max said. “I have pictures.”

“The pictures are a good start. Have you sent them to anyone yet?”

Max shook his head.

“I need to be able to prove they’re running drugs through the operation, though. Distribution. That’s the only thing that’s gonna stick. I want to hit these people hard, all of them.”

Max looked Smith up and down. “This is personal for you, isn’t it?”

Smith didn’t answer.

“When I saw you at Vanessa’s you were dressed the part. Now you look like a bum.” Max paused. “No offense.”

“I’ve taken an interest in this case that’s not exactly official.”

“Why?” Liz asked.

Smith took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “I don’t have any kids, but I got a friend with a daughter. She got caught up in this racket these Russian assholes got going. She didn’t make it out.”

“They killed her?” Liz asked.

“She O.D.ed. She was clean before she went to that place. Not perfect, but clean. She had a future, but these people…” he trailed off. “My buddy never really got over it.”

“What happened to him?” Max asked.

“He wrapped his car around a telephone pole one night. Drunk as a skunk. He drank a lot after Cindy died. He’d already lost his wife to cancer a few years before and he had nothing left, you know?”

“Seems we all have a vested interest in seeing some kind of justice done here,” Max said. He looked at Smith. “What do we do now, then?”

“First, we need to pick up Gabe, provided he’s still where you two left him.” Smith looked them both over, shaking his head. He winced slightly. “You two…you really got yourselves caught up in a shit storm, didn’t you?”

Max shrugged.

“I can’t say I blame you,” Smith continued. “You both lost a kid. I lost a surrogate daughter, I guess you could say. And I lost a buddy. I knew Frank for years. He was a good man before he got everything taken away from him.”

“So if Ruby was lying, then how much of that stuff she said about Gabe was really a lie?” Max asked. “She wasn’t lying when she said he didn’t come to work.”

“You want my theory?” Smith asked.

“Yeah.”

“I think she was setting you up. I think Gabe got loose and called her. Of course he told her about what you and Liz did to him. She, in turn, fed you some intel about how Gabe wasn’t such a bad guy, about how he was trying to get out or whatever, and then she tried to blow you off, Max.”

“To what end?”

“Redirection. She gets you off Gabe’s case and out of her life.”

“But what about the paperwork she said Gabe had? The dirt that he had on Caldwell?”

“Some of what she said might be true. These kinds of people mix fact and fiction, but it’s always a lie in the end. She and Gabe are probably both on the take with blackmailing Caldwell. But you’re a liability, a monkey wrench in that plan.”

“Then who killed her?” Liz asked.

“Maybe Caldwell. His real name is Dimitri Aksakov. He took an American name after he got into the club and porn biz. We think there might be another group out there, though. A rival to Aksakov.”

“Would Gabe have been working for this rival?” Max asked.

“I’ve considered that. It’s always possible that Gabe could be playing both sides of this, threatening to take his information to us or to go turncoat and join up with this rival. Honestly, it’s so convoluted that it sometimes has my head spinning.”

“So why is the department not looking into this?” Liz asked.

“They did. Aksakov—Caldwell—runs a squeaky-clean operation. He distances himself from the dirt and scum, usually through some sort of intermediary. Gabe Harris, for instance.”

“Then why don’t you put Gabe away?” Liz asked.

“I probably could. But that wouldn’t solve the problem, would it? Caldwell would be right back out there, exploiting young girls for profit. He’d also be just a little wiser and would be even harder to catch. I want to nail the main guy. I get him and the rest topple.”

“What about Ruby then? Are you just going to leave her body there? Max asked.

“I don’t want to sound crass or anything, but somebody will find her. When they open the place up or whatever. They’ll call it in.”

“So are we under arrest?” Max asked.

“I’m not going to arrest you. But you can help me.”

“How?” Liz asked.

“Let’s start with Gabe Harris. With any luck, he’ll be right where you left him.”

Gabe Harris turned out to be exactly where Max and Liz had left him…but sitting in a pool of his own blood.

“Well, fuck,” Smith spat. “There goes that.” He looked at Max and Liz suspiciously. “You said you left him alive.”

“We did,” Max said. “I swear. His leg was broken, but he did that to himself when he fell down the stairs.”

Smith looked at Max’s bruised face. “He did bust you up pretty good, didn’t he?”

“He was alive when we left,” Liz said. “Somebody came back and did this afterward.”

“So if not you two, then who?”

“Maybe Caldwell found him and did this,” Max said. “Gabe was working for him, so he knew about this place.”

“Not necessarily.” Smith stopped to inspect Gabe’s body. “Throat’s cut. He bled out like a stuck pig.” He looked up at Max and Liz. “Be careful not to step in any of it. Don’t leave any traceable footprints.”

“If Caldwell didn’t do this, then who did? Max asked.

“I didn’t say Caldwell didn’t do this. He might have. But he keeps himself distanced from the operations he runs. He knew Gabe was filming porn somewhere, but maybe not necessarily where. That way if we ran him in he could claim ignorance. So we can’t conclusively say it was him, but he can’t be ruled out yet. That said, he’s still my prime suspect.”

Max mentioned seeing Caldwell the night he investigated the house for the first time.

“Could be that he got suspicious of Gabe and made him divulge this address. Once he knew he could easily have come here and took Gabe out.”

“Do you think Caldwell knew that these girls were underage?” Liz asked.

“Maybe. Or maybe that was Gabe’s side gig. See, when you don’t micromanage the operation, it allows wiggle room. Skimming, that sort of thing. So maybe Gabe has himself a little side business of underage porn production and does it on Caldwell’s dime. Uses his house, his equipment, his distribution network. A guy could make a lot of money on something like that.”

Liz frowned. “Sick.”

“It pays,” Smith said. “It’s the way of the world. It could explain how your daughter got caught up in all this. Amanda might have fallen in with the wrong people. Maybe she met Ruby out somewhere. Maybe they had one of those amateur nights over at The Hustle.”

“Amateur night?” Liz asked.

“Yeah. Girls come in, strip for a night and get some attention and some cash. If the club owner likes what he sees, he might ask the girl back to dance regularly. Do you know if your daughter ever spent time at The Hustle?”

Liz shook her head. “Not that I know of.”

“Well, it’s not the kind of thing kids tend to share with their parents. Point is, she could have met up with Ruby anyway, anyhow. Maybe Ruby offered up a chance to dance on weekends. With Ruby in cahoots with Gabe, the next step would be to con her into doing a few movies. Kids are often lured in by easy money.”

Liz looked at Gabe’s lifeless body sitting in the chair, still bound by the ropes she’d tied herself. “I feel sick.”

“Problem is,” Smith continued, “we not only have nobody to question now, we also have a crime scene on our hands. Your prints are all over this place. Either of you two have priors?”

Max and Liz both said they didn’t.

“Did you get fingerprinted when your daughter disappeared?”

Liz shook her head.

“That’s good. You won’t come up in the database then. We’ll wipe down what we can, but that’s only so good. These assholes did a pretty good job of cleaning up after themselves already. Reality is, nobody’s going to really care that this asshole got wasted. This case will get worked fast, tossed into a box with the lid on it by the end of the week. That’s good for you both.”

“We should report this,” Max said.

Smith shook his head. “Not yet.”

“Why not? We can’t just leave a body here to rot.”

“I’ll call it in later. First, we need intel. This guy’s not going anywhere. Right now, we need sleep. It’s three a.m. and I’ve been up as long as you have.”

“And after that?”

“After that, we hit that cabin. We might be able to find some clues there that’ll point us in the right direction.”

Max and Liz returned to their hotel room. Smith got himself a room nearby, electing to stay close to help protect them. Max wondered if part of the reason he stayed was to keep an eye on him and Liz, to make sure they didn’t try to run, but Max decided to take the protection any which way they could get it.

Sleep came quickly to Max and he slept well into the morning the following day. By the time he awoke the sun had come out in full force. It looked like it would be a hot one that day and the thought of going back into that desolate cabin to spend time with a desiccated corpse did not exactly appeal to him.

“I wish I had a change of clothes,” Liz said from the bed. She sat up and wiped the sleep from her eyes.

“Maybe we could swing by your house to pick some up on the way.”

“I’m not going home yet, not until this thing is done.”

Max thought of his own house, turned upside down by Caldwell or some other gang of criminals who likely wanted him dead. “Me neither.”

Liz hopped in the shower and put her clothes from the previous day back on again. Max did the same. Detective Smith showed up a little later wearing the same striped shirt as yesterday. Max let him in.